Lampwork Art

Black with Ivory Cameo Roses Set of 4 Lentil by artwithheart

via www.etsy.com

I love the simplicity of these beads. Very elegant.

FotoFuze - Fix Your Photos!

Welcome to FotoFuzeDiscover and explore enhancing your photographs.We have lots of cool things here at FotoFuze. We know you'll love it here.Which should you choose, 2D or 3D?· Upload a 2D Photo to make professional photos from ordinary camera shots.· Make 3D Photo to make professional 360° view photography.Have a question?Feel free to contact us anytime by clicking Help on the bottom right corner of any page or by e-mailing us at support@fotofuze.com.

via fotofuze.com

Taking a decent photo of my work continues to be my biggest challenge. It is hard to capture the depth and dimensionality of some items in a photograph, adjusting the image in Photoshop only helps a bit.

However, I've recently discovered FotoFuze and it's helped out a lot. This program integrates with your Etsy store and allows you to fix the background of your photos. Just select what you want to keep and FotoFuze makes the backgraound either a uniform white or black so your items can really pop!

Spring 2012 Color Trends

The weather outside may be frightful, but for designers spring is just around the corner.  Check out the Pantone color report to see what's shaping up for Spring 2012.  Tangerine, yellows, lilac, and more...

OKLAHOMA ~ Oklahoma City Gem, Jewelry, & Bead Show

OKLAHOMA ~ JAN 13, 14, & 15, 2012 | C&S Events – AKS Gem Shows

January 13, 14, & 15
Show hours: Friday & Saturday 10 til 6, Sunday 10 til 4

Handmade lampwork glass rooster bead by glassbead

via www.etsy.com

Doesn't look as mean as the roosters I've known. ;)

Amazon WebStore and Selling on Amazon - a Review

In the past I have run my bead and jewelry ecommerce sites myself either with Zencart or with Drupal's Ubercart. Both solutions work well, but since I've been focusing on production, I decided that I needed a solution that was hosted and maintained by someone else in order to free up more time to make things. I am more than willing to pay for this service.  I just want something that works and is easy for me and my customers to navigate.  I did research on the various hosted ecommerce platforms. Eventually I settled on Amazon's WebStore. Their offer was hard to resist. Three months free and it included Selling on Amazon. I thought, "Hey! That's great since I buy lots of stuff on Amazon." I thought that since I like to shop on there and others obviously do too that it would be a good thing to get my stuff in their marketplace. Silly me.

What I didn't expect was to end up wasting nearly two months of my time on a solution that simply doesn't live up to their promises.

Sell on Amazon? Sure, you can do it but only if your items fall into very specific categories. Getting the Pro account is technically supposed to allow you to create a listing on Amazon.com. What they don't tell you in their promotional material is that:

1. You have to have a UPC code to sell an item. Sure there are a few exceptions, but you have to be approved on an item by item basis. Does anyone really have the time for this?
2. If your category is restricted like Jewelry then good luck getting accepted. Their two to three day promise of a decision is likely to take several weeks. And then if they couldn't approve you the first time for some reason, expect two more weeks.

Technical support

Dismal.  I haven't run into anything this slow in years.  Expect issues to take weeks to resolve. Their standard answer to any problem I had was to tell me to upgrade my browser to the latest version. I always run the latest version and found this non-answer to be exceedingly irritating, especially the second or third time around.

WebStore

Seriously, this program seems like it is still in Beta. Good luck trying to copy a listing you just entered. Help links take you to Forbidden pages. Want to make an item inactive? Not likely.  I did it once before and now the link has vanished.  Frankly, it's kind of a nightmare. I have to admit that the finished product is nice, really nice, once you spend a month or so learning the program. I don't see where it is worth the $25-$40-$55 per month though.  The aggravation factor is just too high.  I'm going to give it another month and see if I can get accepted into the Jewelry category, but right now I'm thinking this is a failed experiment and will probably just settle for a blog with Etsy listings or something.

Expense

Boy, and here I thought eBay was bad.  Be ready to pay through the nose. They get you on every possible little thing they can think of: transaction fees, commission fees, closing fees, etc.   One sale I had, I handed over nearly 35% to Amazon and that's not even including the monthly fee they will eventually charge. Unbelievable.

Conclusion

It's probably a really neat thing if you sell books or DVD's in volume, but if you are outside of the norm, have unique items, or sell items that don't have UPC codes you would do better to go somewhere else.

The Whole Bead Show - Tuscon, AZ 2012

via www.wholebead.com

Feb 1-6, 2012 in Tucson, AZ.

Check Out My New Site

Okay, so after a few false starts with my webstore I think I have one I like.  I'm trying to be better about listing things online regularly.  I'm still handicapped by my photography skills, which are just about one step above lousy.  At least I'm managing to keep my fingers out of the shots now, for the most part.  LOL.  Anyway, check it out.  www.josephinebrooksdesigns.com

:)

GOLDEN PLUM PALACE by radiantmind

via www.etsy.com

Gold and purple. How could you go wrong? :)

Lampwork Green Coral bead by AnneLondez on Etsy

via www.etsy.com

Oh my gosh! These are cool.

:)